How To Make Sacrifice Happen

Let’s say you know you could use less water when showering, by showering for a shorter time, or by turning off the water in the middle, or some secret other way that I don’t know about. This is a great thing to know of, but it might not be enough to motivate you to do so. You’re wanting to save that water, but your mind is saying that using less water is not so appealing, and you don’t see what is in it for you. It’s like there is a used air salesman selling you air, and you’re not up for purchasing it. That example doesn’t exactly fit in, but you get what I am saying.

You Need A Reason

What you need is a reason for your sacrifice to be relevant. You may really want to use as much water as you can on your fruit plants. This changes the dynamic. Suddenly, when you are showering, you will remember that the water you save from showering in a more efficient way can then be directly used as water for your fruit plants. Now you have a direct connection between the change in your actions(sacrifice) and the reward you can get from performing it. Now you are way more likely to change your showering or water consumption habits.

Make A Direct Connection Between Sacrifice And Result

Make direct connections is the way to go. Think about how taking a 30-second shorter shower might translate to your lemon tree being soaked for the day(lemons are real good), or how drinking water instead of that tasty drink(most are just terrible) will keep your system cleaner, help maintain your weight, and provide you with solid physical functionality. You have to connect the change with the result. Once you have made a direct connection between the change and the result, you feel stupid when you don’t implement the change, because you directly see the negative result. Our minds are not bad, but when we have loose connections in place, we don’t have a set path or direction because it is fuzzy.

Your New Monitor Could Be That Much Larger

This concept is true all over the place. You might spend $20 at times for leisure activity, and not think much about it, but when you think about how canceling 3 of those leisure activities could allow you to purchase a new monitor that is 4 inches bigger than it would have been, you see the long-term value in your short-term sacrifice. Sacrifice is always a short-term effort.

Social Sacrifice Sure Spells Success

This can come into play in social contexts as well. If you sacrifice your pride or ego for a couple of weeks, and let people you know of know about what you think of them and your own weaknesses and such, you will later look much stronger as a person, and you will also have a much healthier network of people around you. It is not so appealing in the short-term to make such a sacrifice, but you can use the phrase “time flies by” to negate that. People always talk about time going by so quickly, but yet avoid short-term sacrifices that would be completed speedily. There has to be some sort of disconnect there.

If Time Flies By, A Week Of Sacrifice Is Nothing

Use the idea that time flies by, and apply it to your decisions. Two weeks away will be here just like boom bam boom, so if you can make some sacrifice for that short period of time, you will get benefits for a long time from the period that you would probably even forget about.

Concluding Note About Pride

Extending that pride example, if you hold onto your pride right now, and it limits you, you get a short-term feeling of good, don’t really benefit in the short-term, and certainly don’t benefit in the long-term. I know that any time I hold on to too much of whatever you call as pride or ego or cocky mindset or what not, I soon get knocked down for doing so. Others don’t like it and we ourselves don’t like it too much.

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19 thoughts on “How To Make Sacrifice Happen”

Hi Armen,
I love the idea of sacrificing our pride. When we are not concerned with looking good or being right we can achieve infinitely more. Sacrificing the cheap thrill of feeling proud allows us to reap the long term rewards of authentic expression.

Sacrifice are not sacrifices when they are towards a goal. When you sacrifice a goal the final destination that is bad.

Like you said, when we try to find reasons to give up X for, much important Y, it will not feel like sacrifice. I recently did no spend month challenge on my blog, where I spent only $300 for whole month, and it did not feel like a sacrifice at all, because I had reason(s) behind it.

They sure are not actually sacrifices if we think about it that way, but they are in the short-term, which is where most of our minds are.

Your self-challenge sounds like it was a smart way to get a certain budget under control. It may have felt like a sacrifice at times, or continue to feel that way, but I hear your point about reasons making something not seem like a loss.

Armen, great post here! Regarding sacrificing activities for financial benefit – The time you spend putting your head down into your work/what you love to do instead of those costly activities can not only save you $, but the knowledge gained in those time periods will often lead to long term success! (depending on how much time you put in)

“Sacrificing” something is difficult because I feel that I may be depriving myself of some joys or amenities that I would rather enjoy. As you say, when we focus on the results, suddenly, the sacrifice is not so difficult! It becomes more of an “investment” which will yield some positive results soon enough.

It sure is difficult when we feel like we have a hole right now because of the sacrifice, so we have to fill that hole with thoughts of what will come from it. It is the only way to respond to that instant feeling.

I would say that the majority don’t admit so much like this, so I’d place you in the category of folks who see some of the issues they may have.

While every choice is a sacrifice, there are some that really put a hold on enjoyment for the current time, and there are some that leave problems for later. Later has to be a priority for us because there is a very high chance we will still be here when that later arrives, and then we will get what we set in store, bad or good.

I am not too bad making sacrifices to fix problems. I have difficulty making the sacrifices that will bring bigger rewards. What I tend to loose sight on is the bigger rewards that come from training regularly or mastering a new skill with practice. I find it too easy to become distracted.

I hear you there. The sacrifices to fix problems are more short-term and instantly rewarding than some that bring rewards later on down the line. Replacing a printer cartridge takes a bit less effort than spending 30 minutes every day to learn a programming language, and so we tend to be inclined to do it.

One thing that is interesting about distractions is that on the one side is the person who is distracted, and on the other side, there is much information out there about how to make your creation more appealing so it attracts(or distracts) someone from what they were doing. It is somewhat of a battle.

Armen,
You are spot on there, its a battle. To manage it I’ve been working on removing the distractions, but am finding it difficult. I have a lot of old habits that are getting in the way. My biggest distraction it the internet, there is just so much delicious information that I want to seek out, but too much sugar isn’t good for the health.
Thanks for writing this post, it keeps me aware that I need to stay on top of these temptations.

Wonderful point there about the too much sugar being bad for the health. We see bright lights and colors and are amazed, but then substance is not so much at all times, or maybe too much hype is there. I get pulled towards that sometimes as well. It has a strong pull. Defeating temptations is something that others may not understand, but we can celebrate an inner victory each time it is done.

Great post Armen. I am ready to sacrifice something I think this is a really great post because so often when we sacrifice something and fall short, we aren’t really sure what the perfect formula for success entails. These insights you shared are very helpful and allow us to really make certain we know how to handle and manage sacrifice. As you mentioned, it is important to have things we can rely on to be motivated to make sacrifices. Great post. Thanks for sharing your insights.

We need those things that we can rely on for motivation. If they are not structured before the process starts, and don’t work as expected, we can end up cutting off the whole operation, and so much effort will have been wasted. I recently messaged that if you don’t think you can finish something, it isn’t worth starting it. The effort could have been much better spent on anything else that could be taken to completion. The world only is supportive of things that are completed, and disregards unfinished material.

It is often difficult for people to visually show signs of sacrfice because they do not want to be viewed as vulnerable. However, ultimately people are continually sacrficing their time indulging in selfish acts in ecomonics it was define as “opportunity costs”. Basically you could be doing something else with your time. Once people realize that they should strive to become productive members of society and be willing to help another, set goals and obtain them as a whole our societies would be in a better state.

There are many reckless individuals and corporations that often weigh the risk vesus reward when making a decision and often it simply leads down to the numbers. Accountability is an underlying principle that one must not be forgotten, you must be held accountable for your actions. OHS inc offers a variety of services that help companies reduce risk and liability. Whether its pre-employemnt drug screening or candidate quality assessment OHS can help you make the right decision so do not need to sacrifice quality.

I especially like the Social Sacrifice, reflection is a very powerful tool that often uncovers more information that one may be looking for.